Archive for the ‘Marwaari Song’ Category
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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Today’s song is from a rare film of the early talkie era – ‘Baala Joban’ from 1934. The film was produced by Gandharva Cinetone – a company owned by Baburao Patel, who also directed this film.
The name of Baburao Patel is known to every lover of old Hindi films, but as a political commentator and a member of parliament, he is known to others. From the mid 1930s to the 80s he was a name synonymous with daredevil journalism, superb quality English writing and an active life style. Add to it several marriages and countless children by legitimate relationships and otherwise.
Baburao Pandurang Patil (he is a ‘Marathi Manoos’ and not a Gujarati) was born on 4-4-1904, in Masvan village, about 100 kms from Bombay, in Palghar district, in a Vanzara ( Banjara) community. His birth date is a strange confluence of numbers. The date is written as 4-4-4. Also, if we take the total of the digits written as 4-4-1904, it also adds up to the number 4 only.
When he was 4 year old, his mother passed away, and his father remarried. Subsequently the family shifted to Bombay. He was put in an English medium school. However he did not complete his matriculation. Lack of formal education always pinched him in life and he always respected highly educated people. He compensated by avidly reading books on philosophy, religion, politics and medicine, and gained an excellent command over spoken and written English language.
After doing many petty jobs, in 1926 he joined ‘Cinema Samachar’, a film magazine in Hindi, English and Urdu languages. He never knew when he entered the film world and became a script writer and a director. He established his own banner ‘Gandharva Cinetone’ and made 5 films as a director – ‘Kismat’ (a silent film from 1931), ‘Sati Mahananda’ (1933), ‘Maharani’ (1934), ‘Baala Joban’ (1934) and ‘Pardesi Sainyan’ (1935). Later in life, he directed two more films with wife Susheela Rani Patel as the heroine – ‘Draupadi’ in 1944 and ‘Gwaalan’ in 1946.
He joined DN Parkar, who owned New Jack printing press and who was publishing a house magazine ‘Prabhat’ for Prabhat Films. He then started his own magazine ‘FILM INDIA’ in April 1935, at a price of 4 annas (annual 3 rupees). From the very first issue, it was printed on high quality art paper. The cover image of the first issue featured a hand painting of actress and novelist Nalini Tarkhud, from film ‘Chandrasena’. There were many ads in the magazine, which promised ”honest journalism and constructive criticism”, though in later issues his criticism was incisive, insulting and quite daring. The cine industry feared his reviews, but readers adored him. Khwaja Ahmed Abbas, the famous writer and film director was also on his staff, and looked after the magazine when Baburao was travelling.
In all these twists and turns of life, his surname became Patel instead of Patil. He continued with it. He hurt many of his fellow film makers and actors. In one case, Shanta Apte is on record having gone to his office and beaten him with a whip, for his defamatory and derogatory remarks in the magazine.
Baburao married 3 times. His first marriage took place when he was studying. The second was with Shirin and the third was with his ex-secretary Sushila Rani Tombat – a very good looking Konkani singer and dancer.
Sidharth Bhatia has written a book titled ‘The Patels of Film India’. Noted author Manto also wrote extensively on Baburao. Bhatia writes – ‘Baburao had an eloquence and power of writing. He had a sharp humour, often barbed. There was a tough guy assertiveness with his venomous pen’. Baburao called Kalpana Kartik “pigeon busted”, Suraiya “Ugly”, and Dev Anand “effiminate”. Meena kumari was “. . .like an inverted shuttle cock”.
His magazine celebrated 50 years in 1985. Baburao became MP from Madhya Pradsh in 1967 on a ticket from the erstwile Jansangh party. One good quality of Baburao was that he was very kind to the poor and helpless people. Baburao Patel died on 4-9-1982.
The cast of the film ‘Baala Joban’ is listed as Padma Devi (a fixture in all Baburao’s films and a personal ‘special friend’), Mubarak, Gulab, Shirin Bano (she later married director Nanubhai Bhatt; Mahesh bhatt is her son), Madhukar Gupte, Nandu Khote (stage and silent film actor; father of Shubha Khote, brother in law of Durga Khote), Raja Pandit, Badri Prasad etc.
Besides acting in the film, Badri Prasad was also the music director of this film. It was his debut film as a music director. He is a wonder in the annals of Hindi film history. There is no other known person in the history who was an actor, lyricist, singer, music director, producer, director and a choreographer- all at same time in his career. He was simply unique. There was no one else like him.
As an actor he has appeared in 147 films. I remember him in ‘Albela’ (1951) as Bhagwan’s father, in ‘Bhaagam Bhaag’ (1954) as Shashikala’s uncle, as the missing father of Nalini Jaywant in film ‘Hum Sab Chor Hain’ (1956), and as the wheelchair confined father of Zahida in ‘Anokhi Raat’ (1968).
As a singer, he has sung 11 songs in 7 films. As a music director, he has 16 films to his credit – ‘Baala Joban’, ‘Vishnu Bhakti’, ‘Fashionable India’, ‘Romantic India’, ‘Zambo The Ape Man’, ‘Swaraaj Ke Sipaahi’, ‘Badhe Chalo’, ‘Yangrilla’, ‘Himalay Ki Beti’, ‘Double Cross’, ‘Zambo Ka Beta’, ‘Jhoothi Sharam’, ‘Anuradha’, ‘Vanmala’, ‘Madhusudan’ and ‘Zevar’.
He has one film to his credit as a lyricist, one as a producer and one as a director. As a choreographer he has done 52 films – from ‘Namoona’ (1949) to ‘Raaj Nartaki’ (1991).
Badri Prasad was born on 14-11-1902, in Benaras, UP. He started acting in Ramleela in the Bhelpura area in Benaras. From there he reached Calcutta, spent time at New Theatres and other studios and then landed in Bombay in 1932. His first film as actor was ‘Navchetan’ (1932).
Then he worked as an assistant to some composers and gave music independently first time to ‘Baala Joban’. His last film as a composer was ‘Zevar’ in 1942.
Then he continued his career, working in character roles. In 1949 he first did choreography in ‘Namoona’ (1949). After for the next 40 years he choreographed in till his last film. His last film as an actor is ‘Dhoop Chhaon’ from 1997 – an active acting career that spans a period of 44 years.
As a composer many famous singers sang for him, like Amirbai Karnataki, Noorjehan, Snehlata, Shyamsunder, Radharani, Sarla Devi, Ameena, Gauhar, E Rama Rao, Ramanand, Vatsala Kumthekar , Vimla Kumari, Iqbal Bibi etc.
Badriprasad was a learned man with command over Hindi, Urdu, English and Sanskrit. He wrote many plays for AIR also. He had a very big collection of books in his house. He was called Pandit Badriprasad,due to his expertise in Sanskrit. He was a man of few words, so his fabulous career remained unknown and he was known only as a character artist.
He had 2 daughters. One daughter Surekha Pandit remained with him till his death. Surekha too is an actress, doing bit roles in films – ‘Anupama’, ‘Mere Sanam’, ‘Nartaki’, ‘Gaban’, ‘Sant Gyaneshwar’, ‘Mere Huzur’, ‘Aadmi Aur Insaan’, ‘Saat Hindustani’, ‘Do Dooni Chaar’, ‘Shehar Aur Sapna’, ‘Aarti’ etc. After marriage she was known as Surekha Parkar.
The singer for today’s song is Marutirao Pehelwan. He has also acted in this movie. He was originally from Kolhapur. In the early era of talkie films, many wrestlers joined film companies. They worked mostly in action films. Some such actors were Baburao Pehelwan (he was the hero of Master Bhagwan’s stunt films; later on worked as a stuntman with fight master Azim Bhai), Vasantrao Pehelwan (he was the one who brought Indurani from Poona to Bombay; was a popular villain in stunt films), Nandram Pehelwan (very popular in silent films but fell on bad days in the talkie era), Sadiq Pehelwan, Maane Pehelwan, Amir Khan Pehelwan etc.
Marutirao Pehelwan was different. He was handsome, tall, well built, could act and sing well. He was selected for the hero’s role in first Gujarati talkie film ‘Narsi Mehata’ (1932), made by Sagar Movietone. He acted as hero and other roles in about 40 films and sang songs too. His first Hindi film was ‘Lanka Dahan’ (1933) and last his film was ‘Apna Ghar’ (1942).
He married his co-star of many films – Tara (sister of Sitara Devi and Alaknanda). They left films and settled in Dhule, Maharashtra. Marutirao started a dairy business there. Famous dancer Gopi Krishna was their son.
[Author’s Note: From 1946, there was another comedian actor named Maruti, active in Hindi films. Initially, he too was billed as Marutirao, creating confusion. He was the father of comedienne Guddi Maruti.]
Today’s song is a Folk song of Rajasthan. It is in Marwari language. Shri Girdharilal Vishwakarma ji has uploaded this song as the ‘first Marwaari song in Hindi films”. On my email inquiry, he has kindly informed me that in this folk song, the wife is telling her husband (aali ja) that ‘bichhuda‘ (scorpion) has bitten her and she wants to go to her ‘peehar‘ (father’s house) now. I am very much thankful to him for this rare song.
[Author’s Note: Acknowledgements and thanks – The above write up refers to and has adapted material from books by Sidharth Bhatia, Saadat Manto, Isak Mujawar, Vithal Pandya, Biren Kothari (book on Sagar Movietone), Sanjit Narwekar, scroll.in, HFGK, Encyclopedia of Indian Films and my own notes.]
[Ed Note: Thanks to Shri Girdharilal Vishwakarma ji (of Jodhpur), who helped to decipher the correct lyrics.]
Song – Bichhudo Ri Ghaali Peehar Chaali Saa, Aali Jaa (Baala Joban) (1934) Singer – Marutirao Pehalwan, Lyrics – Traduitional, Music – Badri Prasad Manik
Lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
bichhudo ri ghaali peehar chaali saa
aali jaa
bichhudo ri ghaali peehar chaali saa
aali jaa
lehardaar beechhudo
naina ro lobhi beechhudo
ghansaagar mhaaro beechhudo
haan laladi sar daabe poochho thaake saa
aali jaa
laladi sar daabe poochho thaake saa
aali jaa
lehardaar beechhudo
naina ro lobhi beechhudo
ghansaagar mhaaro bee. . .
beechhoda naina par bichhudo lad gayo saa
aali jaa
beechhoda naina par bichhudo lad gayo saa
aali jaa
lehardaar beechhudo
naina ro lobhi beechhudo
ghansaagar mhaaro beechhudo
bambai jaavo to motor laajo saa
aali jaa
bambai jaavo to motor laajo saa
aali jaa
lehardaar beechhudo
naina ro lobhi beechhudo
ghansaagar mhaaro beechhudo
bichhude ri ghaali peehar chaali saa
aali jaa
lehardaar beechhudo
naina ro lobhi beechhudo
———————————————————
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
———————————————————
बीछुड़े री घाली पीहर चाली सा
आली जा
बीछुड़े री घाली पीहर चाली सा
आली जा
लहरदार बीछुड़ो
नैणा रो लोभी बीछुड़ो
घनसागर म्हारो बीछुड़ो
हाँ ललड़ी सर दाबे पूछो थाके सा
आली जा
ललड़ी सर दाबे पूछो थाके सा
आली जा
लहरदार बीछुड़ो
नैणा रो लोभी बीछुड़ो
घनसागर म्हारो बी॰ ॰ ॰
बिछोड़ा नैना पर बीछुड़ो लड़गयो सा
आली जा
बिछोड़ा नैना पर बीछुड़ो लड़गयो सा
आली जा
लहरदार बीछुड़ो
नैणा रो लोभी बीछुड़ो
घनसागर म्हारो बीछुड़ो
बम्बई जावो तो मोटर लाजो सा
आली जा
बम्बई जावो तो मोटर लाजो सा
आली जा
लहरदार बीछुड़ो
नैणा रो लोभी बीछुड़ो
घनसागर म्हारो बीछुड़ो
बिछुड़े री घाली पीहर चाली सा
लहरदार बीछुड़ो
नैणा रो लोभी बीछुड़ो
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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